Osteria del Stato

Dined at the new LEYE concept last night. Had a great experience. Apparantely the brains behind this place is Rick Trautomoto. For those that dont know this new rest is housed in the old Papagus space on State st. and the layout is greatly improved, including a bathroom in the restaurant that doesnt require you to traipse through the lobby of the Embassy Suites to go to the bathroom.(I used to hate dining at Papagus for this reason alone)$36.00 Price fixed with some supplements for the porterhouse and filet. Huge wine list, only Italian wines,For the $36.00 you are treated to a huge endless supply of antipasti, including sauteed fennel, beet salad, pecorino romano in balsalmic vinager, braised short rib crostini, cured salmon, tuscan salami, homeade foccacio and an excellent selection of olives. All were terrific and they continue to bring more of any particular dish that you like.Salad also included, just average, in fact I cant even remeber it well enough to describe.

The next course is two pasta dishes, tubular pasta, believe it was rigatoni, in a whitebean/whitewine sauce and a flour and ricotta dumpling with a brown butter sauce. Both great and served family style.

Entrees include three braised dishes, dark meet chicken called Abruzzo, braised short rib and braised pork shank. There is also the option of a seafood stew called pescadore, another chicken dish, two steak options, a daily fish option, and veal tenderloin. We loved everything. The chicken dishes and pork (braised) were delicious and served in le crueset cookware with plenty to take home/seconds. We shared everything and with the exception of the steak options which we didnt order, all were terrific. Didnt have dessert because we were all so stuffed we couldnt stomach the thought.

Overall, great experience, not your typical LEYE Italian slop a plate of pasta and red sauce for thirty in front of you. Very conscientous service, knowledgeable wine service and a very pleasant experience overall.

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